Effect of meteorological variables on powdery mildew intensity of ber at Rahuri, Maharashtra

Abstract

Oidium erysiphoides f. sp. ziziphi is one of the most important causal organism of ber powdery mildew disease and is accountable for yield losses. An environmental factor plays important role in occurrence, prevalence and intensity of powdery mildew. Hence, this experiment was conducted to correlate the environmental factors considering as independent variables with powdery mildew disease intensity of ber as dependent variable at All India Coordinated Research Project in Arid Zone Fruits, MPKV., Rahuri during 20018-19 to 2019-20 for development of weather based model to predict the incidence and spread of disease. Data on dependent and independent variables was collected at regular weekly interval. The result indicated that, highly significant and positive correlation of disease intensity with minimum temperature, morning humidity and wind velocity was observed at 1 per cent level of significance. While, highly significant negative correlation of disease intensity with sunshine hours was observed at 1 per cent level of significance. Significant positive correlation of disease severity with evening humidity was observed at 5 per cent level of significance. While, negative correlation of disease intensity with rainfall, number of rainy days, evaporation and maximum temperature observed but they are non-significance.